The Wheel
by alliterator
Summary: "Fortune can, for her pleasure, fools advance/And toss then on the wheels of Chance." – Juvenal. Spike receives a visit after "Never Leave Me."


Title: The Wheel  
Author: alliterator  
Summary: "Fortune can, for her pleasure, fools advance/And toss then on the wheels of Chance." – Juvenal. Spike receives a visit after "Never Leave Me."  
Disclaimer: All characters belong to Josh Wheaton, Mutation Ally, and Coyote. Or wait, maybe it's John Sweden, Transformed Adversary, and Wolf. Or possible it's Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, and Fox. Yep, that's it.

Time was still for Spike. He had lot of sense of it in the haze of pain when the – what did it call them? – Harbingers had cut into him. When they had carved its symbols into his flesh and let him bleed. When the blood dripped onto the seal, unleashing what Spike could only guess once was a vampire.

The blood was still dripping, although not as much as it had an hour ago. Every time is dripped, Spike would wince, not because it was particularly painful, the pain had faded away after a while, but because he knew that it was because of him that a fearsome creature was now on the loose. It was because of his blood. _Guess I know how Dawn feels now, he thought._

The straps around his wrists dug into his flesh. Before they had strapped him to it, Spike had gotten a look at the contraption he was now on. It was a large wheel, with four planks criss-crossing it, creating on X. It dangled above the seal now. The seal where the creature had come out.

"It's the Seal of Danzalthar, if you're interested." A voice woke him from the fugue state he was in. He raised his head to see who the voice belonged to.

"Cecily?" There she stood, standing on top of the seal, her hair neat and curled, her face just as he remembered it.

"Yes, it's me, William," she smiled. Spike had always liked it when she smiled; her face lit up. But she never smiled for him; he was beneath her.

"How..."

"How did I get here?" She laughed. "I always know where to find you. You always knew where to find me, didn't you?"

"What..."  
  


"You remember a couple of days after the party?" She reached up and touched Spike on his cheek gently. "I came home and found all my family dead. Mother, father, brothers, all tortured and killed with a railroad spike."

"I'm sorry."

"No need to apologize, William. It's not your fault. You were only doing what any vampire would do. If I was home at the time, you probably would have killed me, too."

"Cecily-"

"Shhh, William. It's alright. You didn't kill me. In fact, you liberated me. My family's brutal murder caused me so much pain and anger that D'Hoffryn decided to make a deal with me."

"Halfrek?"

"Yes, that's also me. D'Hoffryn gave me the name. He makes everyone change their monikers when they become justice demons."

"Why are you telling this to me?"

"Because, William, I want to thank you. If it wasn't for you, I wouldn't have become a demon. Which is a sort of poetic justice, if you think about it. It was me that caused you to become a vampire and it was you who caused me to become a demon. Irony at its finest, I suppose."

"Poetic?"

"Oh, that's right, you were a poet. I wonder if you're going to start writing poetry again now that you have your soul back."

"How did you know?"

"You think I didn't see it? I see it clearly, like a flaw in a diamond. It's a shame really. I don't think the world needs more poets now, especially bad ones." She seemed to contemplate this for a second. "I suppose I should have known who would end up like this, but I guess I couldn't see it then."

"See what?"

"The wheel."

"Wheel?"

"Life, death, vengeance. It's all just a big wheel. Where you begin, you eventually end up. Like you." Cecily reflected on this and then said "Like me. Goodbye, William."

Spike watched as she stepped away from him and walked across the room, her feat treading lightly on the matted dirt. "Wait," Spike whispered and she stopped for moment. Spike started to sing:  
"Thus sung the poor maiden, her sorrow bewailing,  
Thus sung the poor maiden in the valley below;  
'O don't deceive me,  
'O never leave me!  
How could you use a poor maiden so?"

Cecily smiled as she walked away from him. Once outside the room, her features started melting and shifting into someone different. In a minute, Buffy was standing there, her lips curled in a wicked grin. "Worked like a charm," she said to herself.


End file.
